Kick the bucket
Meaning
To die, often used as a euphemism.
Origin
In 16th-century English slaughterhouses, livestock were hung by their heels from a heavy wooden crossbeam known as a "bucket"—a term derived from the Old French buquet, which referred to a balance or hoisting tool. As the animals were slaughtered, their final death throes caused their legs to thrash and strike rhythmically against the beam. This grisly, physical sight gave the phrase its literal origin, eventually migrating from the slaughterhouse to the broader lexicon as a dark euphemism for death, stripping away the gore but retaining the image of that final, involuntary kick.
Examples
- My old dog finally kicked the bucket peacefully in his sleep after a long and happy life.
- He always joked that he wanted to see the pyramids before he kicked the bucket, and he managed to do it last year.